RBWords

     This very brief line from the second scripture for the feast day we celebrate today could describe both of the personalities involved!  And they were both very strong personalities.  Any fair reading of the gospels or the letters of St. Paul will reveal two very headstrong characters.  They did, in fact, come face to face in Jerusalem over the issue of requiring Gentile converts to Christianity to follow the observances of the Mosaic Law!  Paul boasts that he "withstood [Peter] to his face." [Gal 2:11]  That must have been an interesting encounter, to say the least.  Both these men have had a lasting impact on Christianity!

     Peter's impact is represented in the structural, magisterial ministry of the church.  The Pope is considered to be the "successor of St. Peter" as head of the church.  Paul's impact is represented in the "charismatic" aspect of the church.  By that I mean the preaching and witness to which we are all called as baptized persons, each participating according to his or her gifts.  These two sides of the church are occasionally in tension but both are necessary.  Both Peter and Paul "kept the faith."

     It is traditional for the pope to confer a particular "badge" called the "pallium" on newly appointed archbishops from around the world on this feast day.  While this is considered a sign of the unity of the church, the sheer diversity of those receiving it reminds us that our church is not a gathering of identical and uniform robots marching according to an electric wand in the hands of the pope.  We are the living body of Christ with plenty of strong characters like Peter and Paul to make it interesting!  AMEN